Gelling agents and thickeners are generally regarded as substances added during the manufacturing process to achieve a desired consistency or viscosity. Gelling agents are, typically, added as fluidity modifiers or solidifiers for paints and inks, gelling agents for recovering spilt oils, solidifiers for pesticide formulations, anticlumping agents for paintings or adhesive materials, processing aids for macromolecules as well as gelling agents or solidifiers for perfumes or other cosmetic compositions. Traditional gelling agents include metal salts of stearic acid, clays, pectins, carrageenan, alginates, nylon, fumed silicas, organic derivatives of castor oil and ethyoxylated saturated fatty acids. More recent gelling agents include dibenzylsorbitol and derivatives thereof having a substituent or substituents on the aromatic ring, 12-hydroxystearic acid, acylated amino acid amides and cholesterol derivatives.
While the prior art discloses a wide variety of useful gelling agents, there is still a need for additional gelling agents which provide improved gel stability and/or hardness at reduced manufacturing costs. The present inventors have found that gelling agents in the form of alkyl amides of tri-basic carboxylic acids provide such reduced costs while also providing improved gel stability and/or hardness.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide improved gelling agents.
Another object of the present invention is to provide improved gelling agents for formulating stable gel or stick compositions.
These and other objects will become readily apparent from the disclosure which follows.